One gnawing thought nonetheless clings to battle reporter Trey Yingst in regards to the October 7, 2023, terror assault on Israel which he replays in his head time and again: It may have been me.
Because the barbaric Hamas rampage of Israel — which left 1,200 useless and 240 taken as hostages — was going down, Fox Information’ Yingst was hurtling towards the scene.
“One of many issues that’s nonetheless with me is how shut my staff and I had been to loss of life on that fateful morning,” he writes in his new e-book “Black Saturday,” (FOX Information Books), noting {that a} split-second choice about stopping at an intersection in Israel’s battered south, could have meant the distinction between life and loss of life.
“If we’d stored going… we’d have discovered ourselves proper within the midst of the carnage, underneath assault by Hamas gunmen. Would I’ve tried to purpose with the gunmen earlier than they killed me? Would I’ve defined in Arabic that I used to be a journalist?
“Would they’ve murdered me anyway?”
As Chief International Correspondent for Fox, Yingst has burnished his status in battle zones all over the world for the final decade on the frontlines in Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine.
However nothing ready him for the previous yr, when he was woken up inside his Tel Aviv residence at 7am on what’s turn into often known as “Black Saturday,” the most important slaughter of Jews for the reason that Holocaust.
In his gripping firsthand account, Yingst, 31, talks to troopers, civilians, leaders in Israel and figures in Hamas that paint a devastating portrait of the price of battle. He writes about coming into Gaza 5 separate instances on navy embeds — a correspondent’s attachment to navy items in armed battle — and witnessing tense firefights between Israel and Hamas.
As he tried to get a deal with on the scope of the assaults, within the midst of the confusion and shock on October 7, reporting from the scene would turn into a fragile needle to string.
“Stick with the information and keep away from opinion or emotion-based evaluation,” he instructed himself.
“I had ready for today for years, hoping it will by no means come,” he writes.
“I felt I used to be constructed for this second.”
Within the bloody yr that adopted, Yingst spent practically 200 days on the bottom masking the assaults and its aftermath because the Israel-Hamas battle has unfolded.
“October seventh was one of the crucial horrific issues that I’ve witnessed. The aftermath of this bloodbath was ugly. It was bloody, it was tangible. We felt it, we noticed it, we smelled the our bodies, we noticed the individuals who had been killed,” he instructed The Publish whereas reporting from northern Israel, the place preventing with Hezbollah has intensified, this week.
“I take into consideration that day lots as a result of we had been so near dying,” he mentioned. “We noticed the individuals who had been killed. We noticed the individuals who didn’t have the luck that we had as a result of that’s actually what it was – it was luck. There was no technique to the truth that we survived that day.”
And terror practically hit very near dwelling on Black Saturday.
Yoav, the engineer in Yingst’s tight-knit crew, was agonizing over the destiny of his brother, Gil, who lived a few mile from the Gaza border in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The remoted neighborhood was overrun when a whole bunch of terrorists methodically slaughtered or kidnapped about one quarter of its 400 residents – and Yoav was unable to attach with Gil and his spouse of 40 years, Michal.
Terrorists had entered their dwelling and set hearth to it because the bare couple barricaded themselves of their protected room with no lock.
The military rescued them alive some 11 hours later.
The early days in a post-October 7 actuality took their toll on the journalist, with triggers at each flip.
Throughout a go to to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of many hardest-hit communities alongside the Gaza border, Yingst witnessed a funeral for one in all no less than 62 residents who had been brutally murdered that day, with extra taken hostage.
Strolling by means of the crime scene dwelling of the Kutz household, who spent years dwelling in Boston, with a New England Patriots hat nonetheless on show, left him “numb.”
The bed room was “a pool of dried blood,” Yingst writes – the mattress, ground and partitions.
The household of 5 was found in mattress with dad, Aviv, “embracing his family members,” he writes.
The stench overwhelmed the usually stoic reporter, who darted off to observe respiration workout routines.
“I felt like I used to be going to vomit,” he writes.
The unflinching sights of carnage – of households murdered alive wholesale – proved to put on down Yingst within the early days.
“I had began to wrestle, in silence, with what we’d seen within the first few days,” he writes. “We’re taught in journalism college how you can report – not how you can clear another person’s blood off the underside of your footwear, as I needed to do time and again.”
The psychological toll even performed out in his unconscious – like when he’d get up panicked from a foul dream wherein he’s tortured and tossed right into a mass grave.
Or his childhood house is underneath assault and he’s scrambling for security.
The unspeakable brutality and bloodshed on October 7 and its aftermath modified him.
“I feel I’m continually changing into extra empathetic as a battle correspondent. I feel the extra battle that I see, the extra I need to advocate for peace as a result of it really is essentially the most horrific factor,” he mentioned, including somberly, “There aren’t any winners in battle and this battle is not any completely different.”
His best message that he strives to drive dwelling, each in his reporting and on his social media pages, is to “remind individuals to remain human, to be empathetic,” he mentioned.
“Don’t lose your humanity.”
And he’s taking his personal recommendation – attempting to be form to himself within the wake of his PTSD from masking the frontlines as a battle correspondent.
He focuses on “coping with what we see within the healthiest means doable,” he mentioned, turning to chilly showers, consuming clear and abstaining from alcohol.
“I feel it’s very easy for individuals to slide into unhealthy habits while you expertise these items and you’ve got that pressure in your psychological well being. I don’t need to be a kind of individuals,” he mentioned.
“I’ve seen so lots of the nice battle correspondents wreck their lives with medication and alcohol,” he writes within the e-book, noting his empathy for his or her plight.
“I’ve additionally decided to not fall down that rabbit gap.”
After six years primarily based within the Center East and masking the battle for the previous yr, reintegrating into civilian life comes with actual bumps.
“It’s a tradition shock,” he mentioned of a quick return to New York which included attending a buddy’s wedding ceremony.
“It’s important to go from being speaking about missile and rocket assaults to speaking in regards to the climate and sports activities,” he lamented, including he finds it “just a little difficult to reintegrate into society.”
Yingst determined to chop a visit again to New York quick when it turned clear Israeli forces had been to go into Lebanon this week, making the idea of a work-life steadiness principally off the desk.
“Individuals will say it’s unhealthy and I don’t care,” he mentioned.
“That is what I’m enthusiastic about – that is my id, my calling .”
Nonetheless, he has no plans to commerce his a number of bulletproof vests for a desk job anytime quickly.
“I lived by means of the bloodbath, watching individuals die in entrance of us,” he mentioned.
“I really feel much more pushed to guarantee that this story will get instructed.”
